Fall 2009 Graduate Course Descriptions

HISTORY COURSES
HIST 500-level
HIST 600-level
HIST 700-level
HIST 800-level
HIST 900-level

FOUNDATION COURSES: (HIST 601, 602, 605, & 606): Students who did not major in history as an undergraduate may be required to take up to four foundation courses in HIST 601, 602, 605, and 606, beyond the credits required for the MA program. Students who were not required to take them at the time of admission may take one of these courses to count toward their program of study as an elective, but only if they are in Path III (Enrichment).

COMPREHENSIVE READINGS: Because faculty members’ schedules fill up quickly, exceptions to these deadlines will only be granted in exceptional circumstances. You will not be allowed to register, however, until you have been assigned a faculty member by the Graduate Director, Dr. Holt (and Dr. Holt is willing to discuss that choice with you if you have specific faculty members in mind). Please make an appointment with Dr. Holt by calling the Graduate Office at 703-993-1248 well before these deadlines. Students must register for Summer & Fall by March 1 and Spring by November 1. Once Dr. Holt has assigned you to a faculty member, you will be given an individualized section form initiated by the Graduate Office that you will need to take to the Registrar’s Office in order to register for HIST 790, 791, or 792.

NOTE: The department strictly adheres to the University’s Late Add Policy. There will be NO late adds after September 15, 2009. Please consult the Fall 2009 Schedule of Classes for more information and registration dates.

HIST 525/001, CRN 70560: Popular Music in the Americas, Matthew Karush, (mkarush@gmu.edu) Thu 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T 107 (Cross listed with HIST 615-005) syllabus

This course will explore the intersection of musicians, their audience, the commercial culture industry, and the state in the Americas. Focusing on the twentieth century, we will examine both comparative and transnational histories. In other words, we will uncover the commonalities and divergences in popular music history throughout the Americas, but we will also seek to understand how these histories have intersected and influenced each other. How have jazz and rock music been exported to and reconfigured by Latin Americans? How have Latin American musical exports influenced North American culture? Of particular interest will be the role of race in the Americas as well as the ways music, and the popular culture surrounding it, allow people to negotiate race. Among the countries we will consider are Brazil, the United States, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico. While the course will treat popular music as a lens through which to explore larger questions of cultural history, it will also take music seriously on its own terms. Students, therefore, will be required to do a significant amount of listening as well as reading. Dancing, however, is optional.

HIST 535/003, CRN: TBA, Politics of Historical Memory and Global Public Sphere, Cemil Aydin, (caydin@uncc.edu), Course Details TBA (Cross listed with GLOA 600) syllabus

This graduate course will examine a set of history controversies in the public sphere and discuss whether improvements in scholarly historiography can offer ways to resolve these battles. It will also analyze the identity politics behind the contemporary public debates on the historical memory of genocides and massacres in the last two hundred years. What do these public controversies tell us about the globalization of historical memory, national identities, and historical profession? Case studies will include but not be limited to: colonial and anti-colonial violence (Herera, Kenya, Algeria case studies); the Armenian massacres; the Nanking massacre, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the expulsion of the Palestinians; the Tokyo War Crime Tribunal, Algerian War of Liberation, the Vietnam War, and Genocide in Bosnia.

HIST 535/001, CRN 70573: The Crusades, Matina McGrath, (smcgrath@gmu.edu ), Tue 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T 107 (Cross listed with HIST 635-001) syllabus

This class is designed as a discussion and will focus on the first through the fourth Crusades with emphasis on the interaction between the Christian East, the Muslim World and the Christian West. We will examine primary sources (in translation) and secondary sources that render the most recent ideologies and scholarship on the crusading movement. We will study themes of cultural transmission, warfare and colonization between competing societies from Western Europe, Byzantium and the Middle East. Students are required to make two oral presentations, and write two short essays and a final paper. Aside from the assigned books there will be additional required readings from the Internet.

HIST 535/002, CRN 70579: The 60’s in Global Perspective, Steven Barnes (sbarnes3@gmu.edu)
Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B442 (Cross listed with HIST 635 and 615) syllabus

This course will examine the “phenomenon” of the 1960s, culminating with the “year that rocked the world”–1968. The course will include not only readings on the 1960s in a general sense but also particular national histories that focus on topics that may include: the civil rights, anti-war and counterculture movement in the United States, the Cultural Revolution in China, the upheavals in France, Germany and Mexico in 1968, the Prague Spring and its destruction by tanks of the Warsaw Pact, de-Stalinization and re-Stalinization in the Soviet Union, anti-colonial movements in Africa and Asia, etc. The course will discuss the extent to which the 1960s has significance on a global scale and the reasons behind its global nature.

HIST 602/001, CRN 70583: Themes in US History II, Alan Gevinson (agevins1@gmu.edu )
Tue 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: DK 2054 syllabus

This course is designed for students entering the graduate history program with little or no formal background in U.S. history as well as for those seeking a refresher course. The course covers the period from Reconstruction to the recent past. Readings will consist of recent monographs and articles exploring the following two interrelated themes: modernity as it has been applied to life in the U.S.; and the place of U.S. history within a global perspective. Specific topics will include the rise of the administrative state, the rise of consumer culture, the communications revolutions, and the impacts of wars, reform, social conflict, and conservatism. This course does not fulfill any distribution requirement for US history.

HIST 610/001, CRN 70584: The Study and Writing of History, Joan Bristol, (jbristol@gmu.edu), Mon 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B204 syllabus

This course examines twentieth-century trends in historical analysis. We will discuss the way that historians choose and interpret their sources, the elements that affect their interpretations, and how and why these interpretations have developed and changed. The written assignments will include brief response papers based on the weekly readings, two 5-7 page book reviews (each one will count as 20% of the final grade) and a 12-15 page historiographical essay (40% of the grade). Participation in class discussions is very important and will count as 20% of the grade.

HIST 610/002, CRN 70585: The Study and Writing of History, Dina Copelman, (dcopelma@gmu.edu), Thu 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B204 syllabus

This course examines twentieth-century trends in historical scholarship, paying particular attention to the historical subfields that emerged since the 1960s (for example: the histories of race and ethnicities, women’s and gender history, the history of imperialism and post colonialism, etc.). We will not look at all of these, but will try to understand the underlying processes behind new histories by examining some of them. Cultural and social history are the broad rubrics under which most of our work will fall, and we will also be interested in the ways disciplinary boundaries have been both crossed and enforced as history was influenced by trends in other disciplines and other disciplines turned to history. In examining changes in historical practice we will be looking both at how historical and social forces affected historical practices and at debates within and among historical camps. Attention to the ways that historians choose and interpret their sources, efforts to expand the realm of sources and the ways to use them, as well as changing forms of presentation will also form part of our discussions.

The course is divided in two parts: Part I focuses on approaches and theories; Part II examines selected works of 20th century U.S. history. The texts chosen for Part II allow us to consider the value of the theories and methods studied in Part I. The main writing assignments will be a take home midterm essay and a historiographic review paper.

HIST 610/003, CRN 77418: The Study and Writing of History, Randolph Scully, (rscully@gmu.edu), Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T107 syllabus

This course examines modern trends in historical analysis as a means of introducing students to the academic practice of history. The course is divided into three broad sections. First, we will examine the institutional and conceptual development of the historical profession over time and explore the implications and effects of this development. Second, we will read and analyze a series of influential works from the second half of the twentieth century that have profoundly influenced current ideas and practices. Finally, we will engage with a handful of more recent works that exemplify important aspects of the current state of the field and suggest ways in which it might move in the future. Along the way we will seek to address a number of important, often interrelated themes, including the practical and theoretical issues of race, class, and gender, the relationship between narrative and analysis, the divergent goals of synthesis and particularity, the problems of a historiography centered on Western Europe and the United States, and the methodological and conceptual challenges of recovering histories of the allegedly “inarticulate.” Written work will include brief weekly reaction papers, a book review essay, and a final historiographical essay.

HIST 615/001, CRN 70586: 18th Century Atlantic Revolutions, Rosemarie Zagarri (rzagarri@gmu.edu) Mon 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: KH 209 syllabus

This course will explore the broad social, political, and intellectual connections between the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution. Readings will examine topics including the emergence of transatlantic revolutionary radicalism; the spread of abolitionism; the role of individuals such as Thomas Paine and the Marquis de Lafayette in transmitting revolutionary ideals; the growth of a transatlantic political culture of sensibility; and the notion of human rights. Readings will include: Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light; Jack Fruchtman, Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom; Max Edling, A Revolution in Favor of Government: Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of an American State; Lloyd Kramer, Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions ; Graham Hodges and Gary Nash, Friends of Liberty: A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions, and a Tragic Betrayal of Freedom in the New Nation; Christopher Leslie Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism; Elija Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution; Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution; Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and theBritish Caribbean; Sarah Knott, Sensibility and the American Revolution; Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History.
This course fulfills the “Origins to 1861” distribution requirement in US history.

HIST 615/002, CRN 70587: Protests and Disorder, Zachary Schrag (zschrag@gmu.edu), Mon 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B442 syllabus

Natan Sharansky defines a free society as a place where “a person [can] walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm.” If this is the case, then the United States has never been wholly free. Federal and state governments have dispersed crowds considered riotous, using the threat of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm against those who disobeyed. They have also punished the expression of views considered seditious. The same Constitution that guarantees the rights of free speech, a free press, and peaceable assembly also guarantees the states protection against “domestic violence,” and many a town square has been forcibly cleared of citizens expressing their views. Moreover, private actors have organized to crush dissent. This seminar will explore this tension between freedom and order in three critical periods: the Gilded Age, the long 1920s, and the 1960s. Students will also investigate topics of their own choosing in a historiographical paper. This course fulfills the “1914 to the present” distribution requirement in US history.

HIST 615/003, CRN 70588: The Civil War, Christopher Hamner (chamner@gmu.edu)
Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: DK 2054 syllabus

This seminar provides an introduction to the vast historiography of the American Civil War era. Using some established works on the war era and some of the most important recent scholarship, the course will help familiarize students with the literature surrounding the conflict. The class will analyze the history of the Civil War era from its origins
in the late 18th Century to the withdrawal of Federal troops from the south in 1877 to the conflict’s lasting influence on national memory, with particular attention to the debates that have shaped historians’ discussion of the period over the past decades. Topics of discussion will include political developments in the North and South; questions of race and slavery, emancipation, and African-American participation in the war; women’s involvement in the war effort; military developments on and off the battlefield; and advances in technology and medicine. This course fulfills the “1861 to 1914” distribution requirement in US history.

HIST 615/005, CRN 70565: Popular Music in the Americas, Matthew Karush, (mkarush@gmu.edu), Thu 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T 107 (Cross listed with HIST 525/001) syllabus

HIST 615/006, CRN 72579: Rise of the American Corporation, Paula Petrik, (ppetrik@gmu.edu), Thu 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B442 syllabus

Every day Americans enter into dozens of business transactions, and every day, they are surrounded by business phenomena: Federal Reserve data, trade deficit statements, earnings reports, references to regulatory law, advertising of all kinds, and corporate scandals, among others. Historians have, by and large, left discussions of the history of business to economists. But as one business historian opines, leaving business to the economists and finance MBAs is a mistake; a historical perspective on business is both useful and enriching. Because the field of business history is a broad one, the course—with two exceptions—will concentrate on manufacturers, individuals and firms who made things, and on the evolution of their particular entrepreneurial activity, manufacturing and the marketing of their wares. In this particular iteration of the course, we’ll begin with a tour through the development of corporate America and finish by concentrating on two special topics: the popular culture of business and the current economic crisis, particularly the role of banks. This course, in short, is designed as an intensive reading and thinking course to acquaint you with the major themes in the development of corporate America that will emphasize discussion and the exchange of ideas. This course fulfills the “1861 to 1914” or the “1914 to the present” distribution requirement in US history, but not both.

HIST 615/007, CRN 74756: Gender and Sexuality, Dina Copelman, (dcopelma@gmu.edu), Tue 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T 112 syllabus

This course examines gender, sexuality and the body–three simultaneously distinct and intermeshed aspects of existence that will be approached as social and historical constructs. The course is interdisciplinary and we will pay particular attention to the ways social practices, political movements and theoretical debates have structured our understandings since the mid Twentieth Century. The primary–but not exclusive–focus will be on European and American developments and we will be particularly interested in how differences are constructed in particular contexts. Among the topics we will address are: how feminism and other political movements have shaped our bodies and sexual practices; how gender and sexuality are structured by economic and cultural practices and how gender and sexuality structure economic and cultural practices; how science and technology have changed practices and understandings.

We will read both theoretical works and case studies drawn from different disciplines. With students coming from various departments, expect probing and lively discussions! This course fulfills the “1861 to 1914” or the “1914 to the present” distribution requirement in US history, but not both.

HIST 615/008, CRN 76743: The 60’s in Global Perspective, Steven Barnes (sbarnes3@gmu.edu)
Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B442 (Cross listed with HIST 635 and 535) syllabus

HIST 615/009, CRN 77698: Lincoln: Man, Myth, and Reality, David Gerleman (dgerlema@gmu.edu), THU, 7:20-10:00 pm – Room R A246 syllabus

Two hundred years after his birth Abraham Lincoln remains the seminal figure in U.S. history and the subject of so many books that even experts have lost count. Americans still are fascinated by his iconic life and image and no national election goes by without politicians of every stripe trying to “get right with Lincoln” by quoting his words to justify their own positions. While today Lincoln is acclaimed as the savior of the Union, the great emancipator, and the homespun political genius it is astonishing to learn the low opinion many of his contemporaries held of him, regarding him as a backward country simpleton, a smutty joke teller, or a “first-rate second-rate man.” This course will attempt to separate myth from reality to better grasp the prairie politician’s many complexities, triumphs, and failures by mixing the latest scholarship with standard classics that examine the sixteenth president’s many facets. Students will follow Lincoln’s rise from humble beginnings to national prominence, examine his positions on slavery, explore his professional relationships and controversial marriage, critique his handling of the secession crisis and command style, as well as debate his long term national impact and legacy. Course work will consist of on book reviews, discussion, and a comparative historiographical final exam.

HIST 620/001, CRN 70590: Development of the Early Republic: 1783-1815, Randolph Scully, (rscully@gmu.edu), Tue 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R A109 syllabus

In the wake of their successful revolution, Americans of all sorts sought to create a nation that matched their own vision of a free, independent, republican society. But they often disagreed vehemently about exactly what such a nation should look like. Who should rule, and how? What economic and social policies should the nation pursue? Where did the United States fit into a larger community of nations? What did it mean to be an American? Who was included and who was excluded in that definition? This course explores these crucial issues in the history of the newly independent United States from approximately 1783 to 1828. It will focus on how recent historians have approached questions of American identity and nationalism, the ideology and practice of politics, economic change and class conflict, geographic expansion and sectional tensions, Native American strategies and reactions to the new United States, the role and status of women, the place of slavery in the republic, the evolution of African American communities and identities, and the effects and meaning of religious awakening. This course fulfills the “Origins to 1861” distribution requirement in US history.

HIST 633/001, CRN 70591: Reconstruction, 1863-1880, Jane Censer, (jcense1@gmu.edu), Tue 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: KH 209 syllabus

This course examines the panoply of political, social, economic, cultural and constitutional concerns during the period 1863-1880 as the North and South struggled over the outcome of the Civil War. Among the important questions to be addressed were those of political institutions and power in the postwar North and South and the status of the freed people in society, politics, and the economy. Assignments will include a take-home mid-term and at least one paper. Among the readings will be Eric Foner’s classic, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution. This course fulfills the “1861 to 1914” distribution requirement in US history.

HIST 635/001, CRN 70575, The Crusades, Matina McGrath (smcgrath@gmu.edu)
Tue 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T 107 (Cross listed with HIST 535/001)

HIST 635/002, CRN 70582, The 60s in Global Perspective, Steven Barnes (sbarnes3@gmu.edu)
Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B442 (Cross listed with 535 and 615)

This course fulfills the “1914 to the present” distribution requirement in European history.

HIST 635/003, CRN 70592, From Peace to War to Welfare State: Great Britain, 1900-1956. Kevin Matthews (cmatthe2@gmu.edu ), Tue, 4:30-7:10 p.m., Room T 117 syllabus

This course will explore the many challenges faced by the British people during the first half of the 20th century. In 1900, the United Kingdom, with its imperial possessions, was the largest political, military, and economic power on earth. By 1956, this position had been fatally undermined by war, economic depression, and Britain’s retreat from empire. Yet, even amid this tumult the British people laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. Topics for discussion will include the legacy of Britain’s last Liberal government, the challenge of Irish nationalism, the impact of both world wars on British politics and society, the “long weekend” of the inter-war years, the struggle against economic decline, the origins of the welfare state, the impact of the Suez crisis, and the ambivalent feelings that characterize the Anglo-American “special relationship”. This course fulfills the “1914 to the present” distribution requirement in European history.

HIST 635/004, CRN 70593: Late Imperial Russia 1762-1917, Sherron Nay (snay@gmu.edu), Mon, 7:20-10:00 Room: R B122 syllabus

This course will explore Russia primarily through the eyes of people of the various social classes. The lives of representative individuals will be studied through their autobiographies or through literature. The nobility, the peasants, the workers and revolutionaries and their worlds and times will be examined. The autocracy will be studied through the ways it used myth and ceremony to augment its power. Historians’ views will be used as an introduction to the milieu of the people we study. This course fulfills the “1789 to1914” distribution requirement in European history.

HIST 689/001, CRN 70594, Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age, T. Mills Kelly, (tkelly7@gmu.edu) Wed 7:20-10:00 pm, Room R B204 syllabus

In this course, we will grapple with the challenges posed by our attempts to integrate new media technology into the history classroom. These challenges are very great for several reasons: we still know only a little about how students “become historical” beings, there is only a scant literature on how effective learning takes place in the history classroom, and the target changes constantly as newer forms of new media appear. This is a readings course in which we will read a set of common readings one week and then a diverse set the following week. Each week we will discuss the readings in detail and so everyone is expected to come to class prepared for that discussion. Each week, students will also post a written reflection on the readings into the class weblog. In addition to the readings, assignments include several brief essays and a practicum-either the mock-up of a website for teaching a particular historical issue, problem, etc., or a written description of what such a website might look like. Only those students with the requisite technical skills will be expected to produce the mock-up of the website.

HIST 691/001, CRN 70595, Museum Studies: Myths and Realities, Spencer Crew, (screw@gmu.edu), Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: E 134 syllabus

This course introduces the history graduate student to the theory and practice of museums in America. We begin with a history of museums, with readings that help students define what roles museums have played and presently play in American life and culture. We will study the function of art and history museums, and will investigate how research, collections, education, and community outreach contribute to the vitality of a modern museum. We also will examine the challenges currently faced by museums in a dramatically changing environment. In addition to readings, short papers, and visits to museums, students will be expected to produce an exhibition proposal and an online interactive exhibition on a topic of their choosing.

HIST 696/001, CRN 70596: Clio Wired: History and New Media, Daniel Cohen (dcohen@gmu.edu), Tue 7:20-10:00 pm, Room: R B442 syllabus

This course is a panoramic examination of the impact of digital media and technology on the theory and practice of history. Topics include the construction of scholarly websites on historical topics, how research methods and historiography are being transformed by the digitization of primary sources and digital tools, and the significance of new trends such as social and semantic computing for the discipline. Students will investigate the potential advantages and disadvantages of a variety of web technologies and envision their own historical resources that use those technologies.

HIST 696/002, CRN 76869: Clio Wired: History and New Media, Frederick Gibbs (fwgibbs@gmail.com ), Mon 7:20-10:00 pm, Room: RSCHI 202 syllabus

Introduces changes that new media and technologies are bringing to how we research, write, present, and teach about the past. Students explore theoretical and historical issues as well as learn hands-on skills in digital history. Topics include the construction of scholarly websites on historical topics, how research methods and historiography are being transformed by the digitization of primary sources and digital tools, and the significance of new trends such as social and semantic computing for the discipline. Students must be able to competently use a computer and understand its basic operations.

HIST 711/001, CRN 70597, U.S. Research Seminar: Trials in History, B.R. Kreiser, (bkreiser@aaup.org ) Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: R B118 (cross listed with HIST 731/001) syllabus

Throughout the course of history individuals or groups of individuals have been charged with, and brought to trial for, a wide variety of criminal or civil offenses: heresy, witchcraft, assault and battery, murder, rape, sodomy, treason, assassination, infanticide, immorality, defamation, bigamy, seditious libel, demonic possession, bribery, racketeering, sabotage, pederasty, rebellion/insurrection, robbery, smuggling, conspiracy, forgery, the teaching of evolution, arson, genocide, terrorism, kidnapping, espionage, subversion, obscenity, lycanthropy. The list is virtually inexhaustible. These alleged offenses have been adjudicated under different legal traditions, notions of justice, and systems of jurisprudence, with varying standards and burdens of proof, and before one type of tribunal or another. The drama in the courtroom frequently crystallizes certain social, cultural, and/or political issues of the period. The study of trials, including the legal reasoning and storytelling they entail and the way in which they were constructed and covered in public discussion at the time, can offer a window into the community in which they took place and shed light on all sorts of otherwise hidden facets of a society’s fundamental beliefs, customs, and cultural values as well as prevailing social relations and economic conditions.

Students in this seminar will be expected to select one such trial, or a group of related trials, from any period of European or American history prior to 1958, to examine in some depth and write a research paper (25-30 pages) on the main political, social, and/or cultural themes—and key legal issues–raised by the trial(s) chosen for investigation. Many primary and secondary sources are available, depending on the subject about which you choose to write. Your paper should be based largely on primary sources and involve a close analysis and interpretation of the available documentary evidence, but it should also show a familiarity with, and make a contribution to, current scholarship found in the pertinent secondary literature.

The first few weeks of the class will be devoted to group discussion of common readings on the study of trials. The rest of the seminar will be spent on research and writing, including (toward the end of the semester) classroom presentations and peer critiques of penultimate drafts.

HIST 711/002, CRN 70599, U.S. Research Seminar: History of the Media, Jack Censer, (jcenser@gmu.edu), Thu 7:20-10:00 pm – Room: T 106 syllabus

The main purpose of this course will be fulfilled by writing an original research paper on the press. The time frame covers from the sixteenth century until the recent past. Subjects include content analyses of the press, the business of publishing, the readers of the press, the profession of journalism, biographies of journalists, studies of groups of papers that shared a market or a perspective, government regulation, the press as the Fourth Estate, etc. The list is endless. Student will also present their findings in class and participate in seminar evaluations. The first three weeks will provide an overview of the subject. Readings will include books and articles on the press of North America and Western Europe. Students should read and be prepared to discuss Michael Schudson, Sociology of the News on the first day of class to allow as much time as possible for selection and research of a chosen topic.

HIST 731/001, CRN 70598: European Research Seminar: Trials in History, B.R. Kreiser, (bkreiser@aaup.org ) Wed 7:20-10:00 pm – Room R B118 (cross listed with HIST 711/001) syllabus

HIST 731/002, CRN 70600, European. Research Seminar: History of the Media, Jack Censer, (jcenser@gmu.edu), Thu 7:20-10:00 pm – Room T 106 (Cross listed with HIST 711/002)

HIST 810/001, CRN 74668, Doctoral Colloquium. Steve Barnes (sbarnes3@gmu.edu )
Mon 4:30-7:10 pm, Rooms: JC Mtg. Rm. A

Scholars from George Mason University and elsewhere will present their original research and other papers of interest to the History Department. Class will meet six to nine times during the semester on Monday afternoon. All Ph.D. students are required to enroll. Most sessions will be open to other students and faculty. A detailed schedule of events and dates will be provided at the first session. NOTE TO STUDENTS: Please register for the course in PatriotWeb as advertised on Thursday. Regular colloquium sessions will be held on Mondays in the Johnson Center, Meeting Room A. All breakout sessions are to be held on Thursdays in Robinson Hall, Room A208.

HIST 998: Doctoral Dissertation Proposal. Students must first have approval from the Graduate Director to register for this course. After approval is given, please contact the Graduate Office for a CRN. After the CRN is given, then the student may register via Patriot Web.
NOTE: This course is a prerequisite to HIST 999 and must be completed before advancing to candidacy.

HIST 999: Doctoral Dissertation Research. After your Doctoral Dissertation Proposal and your dissertation committee has been approved by the Graduate Committee, email chssdiss@gmu.edu with your name, G#, discipline, advisor’s name, and the number of credits for which you intend to register. After the CRN is given to you by the Dean of Academic Affairs, students may register via Patriot Web.

ART HISTORY COURSES

ARTH 500-level
ARTH 600-level

NOTE: The only HIST students who can take it for credit are those MA students in Path III (Enrichment), and only then as an elective and if they have not previously taken any other course outside of History. No MA students in Paths I (Pre-Doctoral), I (Applied), and IV (Teaching) can count these courses toward their degrees. PhD students generally aren’t eligible to take these courses unless they are doing a minor field in Art History.

ARTH 599/001, CRN 70622, Advanced Studies/Med. Islamic Art, Lawrence Butler (lbutler@gmu.edu), Wed 4:30-7:10 pm – Room: FAB 212 (Cross listed with ARTH 430/001) syllabus

Textiles and agriculture were the two major commercial products of the premodern world, tremendously important to human history. But both result in transitory products, making their histories hard to reconstruct and easy to overlook. Textiles are fascinating to art historians, since they may well have been the visual art most in view and most often traded in the ancient and medieval worlds. They are particularly interesting as often being products of women’s work and visual ideas. Only a few precious fragments remain from pre-modern times, such as the Bayeux Tapestry, carpets from the Islamic world, or burial goods preserved in the deserts of Egypt, China and Peru. But vast amounts of documentary evidence remain, allowing us to appreciate the importance of textiles in daily life, in international commerce, and in the interchange of artistic ideas worldwide.

In this seminar, we will explore the art, history, anthropology and archeology of textiles through case studies. The first half of the course will consist of a general introduction to pre-modern textile traditions of Eurasia, including the role of trade connections by land along the Silk Road and by sea. In the second part of the course, students will research topics of special interest worldwide, taking advantage of the wonderful resources of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. Students will share the results of their own directed research projects to the class through PowerPoint presentations.

ARTH 599/002, CRN 70624, 1930’s America, Ellen Todd (etodd@gmu.edu)
Tue 4:30-7:10 pm – Room: FAB 212 (Cross listed with ARTH 471/001) syllabus

This seminar looks at U.S. visual arts of the 1930s asking how political debates within and beyond the art community also engaged ideas about American national, regional, and even personal identity during a time of economic crisis. We will look primarily at painting (especially mural painting), photography, and printmaking, addressing this work in historical, institutional, and methodological contexts. As a case study rather than a survey seminar, there are several overlapping themes: tradition and realism, vs. aesthetic modernism in representation, relationships between art and politics during the New Deal’s public art programs, and, as social issues, gender, class, race, ethnicity, labor, and consumer culture.

ARTH 600/001, CRN 70625: Methods and Research in Art History, Michele Greet (mgreet@gmu.edu), Mon 4:30-7:10 pm – Room: INN 137 syllabus
This course is an historical investigation of theories, methods, and critiques involved in the discipline of art history with case studies as appropriate.

ARTH 699/001, CRN 70626: Research Seminar: Greek and Roman Wonders, Marvels, and Triumphs, Carol Mattusch (Mattusch@gmu.edu) Thu 4:30-7:10 pm – Room: FAB 212 syllabus

The Egyptian Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Gold-and-ivory Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse at Alexandria were the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Only the Pyramids survive today, the oldest on the list, constructed nearly 5,000 years ago.

What made a World Wonder? What do the World Wonders have in common with ancient marvels? Were Roman triumphs conceived as animated World Wonders?

For a hardcopy of this document, please contact the History Graduate Office at historygrad@gmu.edu. If you have any further questions, you may contact the Graduate Director, Mack Holt at mholt@gmu.edu , the Ph.D. Graduate Coordinator, Steve Barnes at sbarnes3@gmu.edu and the Art History Graduate Coordinator at etodd@gmu.edu.

History & Art History

Fall 2009 Graduate Course Descriptions

Search